December Short Shots

San Bernardino resident and erstwhile terrorist / gun-buyer Enrique Marquez doing us cyclists no favors posing in a helmet.  He does bear an uncanny resemblance to this guy, however:

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This Just In:  Based on his recent performance at the Miss Universe Pageant, Steve Harvey has been retained by the RNC to host the Republican Convention, just in case a last minute change is required...

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Makes me wonder, if there was just one moment when Bernie Sanders and the other guy both thought to themselves, "Holy shit, I may actually have to run for President..."

Today's Oxymoron: Accountability in Governance

We Ought to Hold the Responsible People Responsible

Apparently the Justice Department can find no law to prosecute Ms. Lerner (who pleaded the 5th - and, yes, it is "pleaded") and she will be off the hook for directing the considerable power of the IRS to actively discriminate against people and organizations of certain political viewpoints. 

This feels so wrong!  It's like Lex Luthor is finally subdued and brought forth by Superman after taking over the world, but because no country has jurisdiction over the North Pole, they had to let him go.

Instead, she will probably sue the U.S. government for wrongful dismissal and attorneys' fees, pain and suffering, and the back pay she feels she so richly deserves.

Vladimir Putin: The Truth is Overrated

And You Think Our Politicians Can't Be Trusted?...

No terrorism, no bomb…nothing to see here

31 Oct:  A Russian charter Metrojet crashes killing all 224 on board.  ISIS claims responsibility and releases a video purportedly showing jet breaking up. 

4 Nov:  France (part of the investigation team), Britain and the U.S. indicate that terrorism in the form of a bomb on board was the most likely cause based on crash evidence, intelligence intercepts, satellite heat blast detection, and a possible explosion sound on voice recorder before going dead. The U.K. halts all flights in and out (U.S. & France have none).

 

Russian "free" press otherwise known as Putin's Opinions

4 Nov:  “Russian authorities deny terrorists were behind the tragedy, and say it was due to a plane fault." (Russian tourists still flying in and out)

 

5 Nov:  “Egypt and Russia are denying claims that a bomb caused a Metrojet passenger plane to crash over the weekend.” (Russian airliners still flying - 23 due in that day)

6 Nov:  “Russian President Vladimir Putin indefinitely halted all Russian flights to Egypt”

              “Even after Mr Putin issued the flight ban, Mr Peskov [Putin spokesman] insisted that it did not mean terrorism was the leading theory of the crash.”

Putin doesn't have to give ISIS credit, but conducting business-as-usual airline flights with thousands of passengers daily in the wake of a likely terrorist incident is a disservice to his people.

November Short Shots

Despite never having held public office or working with the law or in government in any capacity, Dr. Ben Carson thinks he is the most qualified person to become the next President of the United States.

Which makes me wonder how HE would feel if the next time he went in for even minor surgery, this is what he saw coming at him....

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Question:

What do Roger Goodell and Vladimir Putin have in common?

Answer:

Both preside over highly successful nationwide PED programs and each has a card up his sleeve*  

* Goodell has the NFL Players Union to hide behind

* Putin's got, well, omnipotence...and the agency-formerly-known-as-the-KGB

But Vlady!?  Say it isn’t so…

Between the payoffs, sample manipulation/destruction and outright promotion of performance enhancing drugs (by appointed coaches, trainers, officials, Russian "antidoping" regulators, the Russian test labs at Sochi, and reported monitoring and influencing conducted by members of the FSB - yeah, formerly KGB), it's 70-80's East Germany all over again.

“In perhaps the most brazen instance of corrupting the testing procedures, the WADA commission’s report said Grigory Rodchenkov, director of the Russian antidoping testing lab, admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 urine samples ahead of a WADA audit of the samples.”

“During the Sochi Games, Russia pulled off a stunning turnaround from its performance in Vancouver in 2010, where it won 3 gold medals and 15 overall. In 2014, Russia won 13 gold medals and 33 overall.”++

And, as with East Germany, they all got to keep their records and medals.

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You know how your gas tank indicator stays near FULL forever, but when it gets below HALF, it seems to go into freefall?

Presidential campaigns must go something like that...

 

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The U.S. government's latest drone